the stopgap GMT400: a drivabeater thread

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Brother Dustin is a damn GENIUS. 

Use a vag to hold jumper cables

Best. Typo. Ever.  

Or brother Dustin is one sick berkeley.  Unable to determine based on available data.

Best typo ever. 

Posting from my phone is gonna get me in trouble.....

Rule 34. DO NOT GOOGLE.

The power tool box storage idea is pretty good, I might have to liberate that one for my own purposes...

Curious how you're going to refinish the steering wheel.  

I really like how this truck is turning out.

The steering wheel actually cleaned right up with laquer thinner and a paper towel. Had to glue the horn button down though, which i should have done instead of the piece of duct tape. 

So, no refinishing necessary at this point.

The narrowband is wiered to watch. It rapidly cycles between the rich end of stoichometrich and dead lean, often not even lighting the last led fully on the lean. This happens a few times a second at cruise. Not sure if normal, or dead/diying sensor. Not power ground or signal wiring though.

And i got a new shallow mount sub for christmas. Still need to build a downfiring underseat box for it, but only requires .15 cubic feet of airspace.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

I must finally be finished. I spent all day putting screws in at the other door panel and light bulbs and such. I also rebuild the steering shaft. It's quieter than my BMW and has the tightest steering of any gmt400 I've ever driven. I will call this a resounding success.

Tell me more about the steering. Did you do the Cherokee steering shaft conversion?

In reply to Floating Doc :

I did not. Honestly I just put in a new rag joint to go along with all the new linkages and suspension parts and zq8 steering box

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to Floating Doc :

I did not. Honestly I just put in a new rag joint to go along with all the new linkages and suspension parts and zq8 steering box

'rag joint' replace = scoreboard every time well done MC!!! Hey I've been seeing this crazy steam spray nozzle bottle thingy with a hose that does wonders on filthy carpeting during a 'inspireup.com'( ?) infomercial ......have not gfooed it my self ,but wow on the cleaning results....

A long time ago in a galaxy far away, jeremy said he ruined the truck.

I submit the above pictures as proof that all he misses was load bags and fine tuning. 

This is by far the most capable truck i have ever owned. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Looks good doing the work. 

I still think I ruined it. 

However I succeeded in selling it to the right person to restore it to better than new condition.

It looks great! Keep up the good work.

pimpm3 said:

I still think I ruined it. 

However I succeeded in selling it to the right person to restore it to better than new condition.

It looks great! Keep up the good work.

Not better than new. Better than what you bought, maybe. If it hadn't been for the work you did, this truck wouldn't still exist. So, i argue with your statement!

Why don’t you two go get a room?!?!

My wife doesn't like other people touching her things. 

AngryCorvair said:

Why don’t you two go get a room?!?!

No need, they already share a bed..

sleepyhead said:

AngryCorvair said:

Why don’t you two go get a room?!?!

No need, they already share a bed..

https://instantrimshot.com/index.php?sound=rimshot&play=true

Some of y'all may have seen where i said i broke the truck. 

Found the problems this morning. 

1. Play in the slip fit of the steering shaft.

2. Failed rag joint in the column. 

3. Blown out drivers side shock.

4. Passengers side self adjusting tie rod coupler.

All fixed but the shaft/rag joint. Fixing to do a junkyard run for the cherokee shaft swap parts. Im done screwing around with rag joints.

My trip to Ohio ended on a trailer after every conceivable effort to salvage it was made.

2 tie rod ends 

1 new steering box 

Steering box adjustments

Side of the road tie rod end and alignment 

Regrease

30mph tank slappers

Called it in tamarack west Virginia. 

Tonight i started going through the front end.

So far: completely seized idler arm.

FUBAR taper in drag link from idler

Semi seized ifler arm bracket

Steering box shot

Tie rod sleeves, though as tight as possible at the clamps, turn easily to chamge toe on both sides

berkeley. This is gonna be EXPENSIVE. 

my decision earlier to use bargain priced front end parts has now resulted in almost a grand eorth of extra expense, and i haven't bpught any of the above parts yet.

New parts on the way

Moog idler and pitman and tie rod sleeves

Ac delco center link and idler bracket

Cardone zq8 steering box 

That wasn't cheap. Hopefully it will be fixed after this. Still want to manually inspect the ball joints, but need to clear more space in the shop.

Only because I'm ignorant and curious...  What the heck causes that?  Is that just old parts all wearing out together or is that one part going bad and destroying everything else on its way out?

It sounds like the idler and possibly the bad tie rod end(s) put undue stress on the box.  Idler pivot was frozen solid and spinning in/eating away at center link, as well as being almost seized to the idler bracket.  These trucks don’t tolerate much less than high end steering parts.  

I felt bad because my initial thought was bad idler arm, but I just wiggled it for play not expecting it to do the opposite of what they all do.

What Patrick said sums it up.

In addition, something none of us noted (including the service station that replaced the steering box, and the alignment shop that looked over the front end before i left, or me, or....) was that the body of the idler arms was bottomed on the center link. It actually ground material from around the stud and hole in a not insignificant way.

This is the direct result of cheap parts, with nobody to blame but me.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

the body of the idler arms was bottomed on the center link. It actually ground material from around the stud and hole in a not insignificant way.

That's something i've never seen.  isn't the connection between idler arm and center link a tapered stud?   i know you know that contact between body of idler arm and center link should never happen.  I'm trying to understand which piece was so out-of-spec to allow this.

Anyway, glad you got it figured out.  keep expensing those neon miles and these parts will be paid for in no time!

In reply to AngryCorvair :

If I could count mileage reimbursement the neon would be a $0 challenge car. As far as the idler goes it appears that the major diameter of the taper was smaller than the major diameter of the taper in the Centre link causing that problem. Either that or the stud was spinning in the tapered bore on the Centre link causing it to wear down and caused the interference. It would have been spending in the board due to being seized. So it's a chicken or the egg question at that point.

ASSUME THE POSITION!!!!!